Foreign Investors Splurge On $14.4B In U.S. Industrial Assets

Foreign investors increased their appetite for U.S. industrial assets in 2018 as acquisitions by foreign entities in the space grew 152% year over year to a value of $14.4B last year, CBRE Research and Real Capital Analytics said in a report. 

By year's end, foreign investors accounted for 21% of the U.S.’ 2018 industrial real estate investment volume, CBRE reported. 

The foreign transactional volume within the industrial space for 2018 hovered 29% above the average foreign investment volume recorded each year since 2015, the commercial real estate analytics firm said. 

A similar study analyzing foreign investments in U.S. commercial assets in mid-2018 noted that China and Mexico ranked as the top investors at the time. 

But even when subtracting out the large transactions from 2018, the average annual volume of foreign investment in U.S. industrial real estate during the past five years increased 68%, CBRE said. 

Chinese and Canadian investors accounted for 70% of all industrial U.S. investments in 2018. 

Foreign investors targeted three prime industrial markets — Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago. Those cities accounted for $2.4B of all foreign industrial investment in 2018.

Foreign investors spent $849M on industrial investments in DFW alone last year, with Chinese investors accounting for 41% of the DFW volume, followed by Singapore at 34%, Canada at 22% and Luxembourg at 4%. 

Across the nation, Canada contributed the most inbound foreign capital, with $5.55B worth in industrial investments last year, followed by China at $4.56B and Singapore at $3.33B.